The clock on the wall ticked another minute away. Isis kept switching her gaze between Ryou Bakura and the night sky. It felt darker than usual, as menacing clouds had covered up all the stars. She prayed it wasn't some kind of premonition.

"It's been… hours…" Joey sighed, now pacing back and forth across the hospital room again. He glanced up at the monitor every now and then, to try and convince himself that Ryou's vital signs weren't slowly slipping.

"I know." Isis sighed in return. "But these things take time…"

"Time is what we don't have." Tristan whispered. "What Ryou doesn't have."

Tea nodded, unable to answer them.

She glanced down at Ryou worriedly. His eyes were half open, but he showed no signs of consciousness. His pupils were fixed, and no matter what anyone in the room did, they could not achieve any kind of response.

Suddenly, a flash of light from the other side of the room caught her attention.

"Guys! Look!" she shouted, pointing towards the source of the light. Before she could finish lifting her hand, the bodies of Malik, Kaiba, and Yami Yugi reappeared in the same places where they vanished.

The three vessels stood motionless for a moment, their bodies readjusting to being free from the gods' power and out of Ryou's unpredictable body. The other people in the room froze as well, not believing their eyes for a moment.

"Yug!" Joey shouted, literally jumping on his best friend. The hug tackled Yami Yugi to the ground. And he let out a slight laugh.

"Oh, goodness… Yugi!" Tea screamed, also leaping from behind the bed. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

She ran towards the three, tears still stuck in the corner of her eyes.

"Brother… Oh thank Ra, you're all right." Isis breathed a sigh of relief. She ran towards her brother, mentally blessing every god she could even remember. She wrapped her arms around him, almost smothering him. "I was so worried about you… I feared the worst…"

Tristan too, looked up. His eyes fell on Kaiba first, who was brushing off his white trenchcoat with great care. He looked up at Kaiba.

Kaiba looked back at Tristan.

"You okay?" Tristan asked. No one had jumped on the CEO yet, but he seemed unbothered by it.

"Yeah." Kaiba answered. "You?"

They nodded, and shook hands like gentlemen amongst the hugs. However, they were both quickly consumed by other people hugging them. As quickly as he could, Kaiba pulled himself free from the fury of unrelenting emotions.

"Did you find the source of the infection?" Tristan asked. The slew of questions took them by almost as much surprise as the hugs.

"Did you beat it?" Joey added.

"Is Ryou going to get better?"

"How did you do it?" Isis asked. "How were the gods able to help you?"

"Are you okay? Did any of you get hurt?" Tea jumped in.

"Can the disease come back?"

"Did you send it back to the shadow realm where it belongs?"

Kaiba sighed.

"Quiet. All of you." He growled. "Yes. If you're wondering, we did beat the thing…"

He looked around at everyone. They were surprised that he was the first to respond.

"… if it ever really existed in the first place. I'm still not convinced it did." His voice sounded as though the only person he really tried to convince was himself. "Now. I did what you wanted. And I missed a lot of important meetings... I have my Egyptian god card, though. So waste not, want not, I suppose.

"We did manage to stop it." He smiled, patting Kaiba on the back.

He then glanced over at Ryou Bakura. The boy had not improved since the time they arrived. To be honest, he was still getting worse.

Even with the source of the disease out of his body, Kaiba's initial presumption was right. The boy was incredibly weak. The disease had wreaked havoc on his frail mortal body. His heart rate was fluttering. The jagged lines on the monitor spiked in every direction. And that was only the beginning.

Yami Yugi sighed.

"My only fear is… we may not have been able to stop it in time…"